Capitol Hill Man Shot By Police After 9-Hour Standoff

A man looking out from the fifth floor of the Marq Condos building. He was later shot by police.

capitolhillseattle.com

A Capitol Hill man is dead after a nearly 9-hour standoff with police early Friday morning. Shortly after 3 a.m., Seattle Police responded to reports of shots being fired from a fifth story apartment in the Marq Condos on Bellevue Avenue. Residents in and around the building were evacuated, and a SWAT team surrounded the apartment. At around 10 a.m., police shot and killed the man after he reportedly fired shots in their direction.

Adri Verlaan lives in the same building as the shooter. He remembers the man spreading revolt-like propaganda around his building several months ago. Verlaan says he heard the man making loud declarations about the Second Amendment from his balcony the day before.

“I think he was a little bit mentally unstable,” Verlaan said as he stood across the street, waiting for police to give him the go-ahead to go back inside. “It’s kind of a little bit sad when we’re cutting into all these different social benefits that would help these types of people, and then we end up with it being on the street and in the real life. And that’s the reality of what happens.”

Police closed Denny Way for several hours after the shooting and redirected traffic and pedestrians around the crime scene. Doug Hamilton lives just next door to the apartment building. He says he’s sad to see something like this happen to one of his neighbors.

“It points out to me how scary it is when people get pushed to the margins, and it’s really disappointing that someone who was that close, that has neighbors and has friends, came to that point in their life,”Hamilton said, his face falling as he considered the events. “I’m really sad for the victim and I just think it makes us all remember that we should be able to reach out to our friends.”

Seattle Police say the SWAT team was unable to negotiate with the shooter. After they shot the man, they sent a robot into the building to survey the scene before medics entered the apartment. No police officers were injured in the shooting.

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